Week 28:  Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Responsiveness

I have grown up in what I consider to be a privileged position in that I am a pakeha New Zealander with Māori brothers and sister.  As they had families I then became an aunt and great aunt to Māori and Tongan  nephews and Cook Island and Māori great nephews and neice.  Being part of this whānau  has given me an insight into our society and our education system from a perspective not experienced by most pakeha.  As you could imagine I am highly committed to equality of opportunities for Māori throughout our society and have been in situations where I have seen blatant differences in treatment of Māori in everyday situations such as shopping.  Being followed around a store by a security guard for no other reason that you fit some racial stereotype for example.  Yes, this is in New Zealand!

Being an educator I have also been called upon by my brothers and sister to attend school interviews for their children as they did not feel comfortable to do this.  At one interview it became apparent that the intermediate school teacher had low expectations for my nephew stating that he would be in the work force in 3 years.  My nephew was only 11 at the time! Where were the high expectations Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh & Teddy (2009) talk about that underpin success for Māori as Māori in this case?  More recently I have questioned a local secondary school about the reason a student who used racist gestures and language to my great-nephew was not reprimanded for this whereas my great-nephew, who responded by hitting him, was rightly suspended.  Apparently racism is OK in our schools.  I was interested in the research carried out in 2011 by Savage, Hindle, Meyer, Penitito & Sleeter on culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom.  One thing they commented on was some examples of racism in the schools participating in the research and deficit theorising.  This deficit theorising is reflected in the thinking of teachers where they see that the Māori student is where remediation is required rather than in the practices of the teachers that can lead to under achievement of Māori in schools.  

So, for me, it is essential that there is a whole school culture of high expectations and care for Māori students, that caring and learning relationships are developed with the students and their whānau so that the individual identity and strengths that each student brings to the school or early childhood centre are built on.  

From: Tataiako - Cultural competencies for teachers of Māori learners

According to the ERO (2010) 76% of Māori children participating in early childhood education are in mainstream early childhood centres and the majority of these children are attending kindergartens.  It is therefore extremely important that those of us teaching in this area provide culturally responsive programmes.  While we have a responsibility to provide this for all children we teach our obligations as partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi mean that our top priority should be Māori.

So how are we doing in the 70 kindergartens in our organisation?  We have a mixed level of achievement and I will reflect on two areas that illustrate this.

Bicultural practice in our kindergarten programmes - 

Teachers throughout the organisation have been working hard for the past four years to their bicultural pedagogy.  In 2012 we began an organisation wide professional development on the core tikanga principles as illustrated in the work of Williams & Broadley (2012).  Each teacher attended workshops on the tikanga principles and reflected on how to incorporate these into their practices.  The core tikanga principles that underpin our teaching are;

• Manaakitanga -  can be likened to noticing, recognising and responding (Carr, 1996) to the other in a positive manner. It is about looking for the best in a person, and finding opportunities to acknowledge that person in all different ways
• Ringitiratanga - the strength of one’s own ability to lead or become a leader.
• Whanaungatanga - Whanaungatanga is about being part of a larger whole of the collective. Mäori are related to all living things and thus express whanaungatanga with their surroundings
• Wairuatanga - is about understanding and believing that there is a spiritual existence in addition to the physical.
• Ako - Ako is grounded in the principle of reciprocity and also recognises that the learner and whänau cannot be separated.
• Whakapapa - Whakapapa is to lay one generation upon the other. Therefore we are only the eyes and ears of those gone before us (past). As we live our daily lives (present) we are aiming to sustain and provide viable opportunities for our future generations.
• Kotahitanga - This is developing and maintaining a unity of purpose and direction and avoiding approaches and decisions that lead to division and disharmony.
• Taha tinana - A two-pronged principle which firstly deals with one’s own physical well being, i.e. healthy food and drink, exercise, rest/sleep. The second is about respecting the environments in which we all engage.
• Ūkaipōtanga - The importance of this principle is being able to ground yourself to your true home. As a whole person with your identity intact, you can make your contribution.  (Williams & Broadley, 2012).

The result of this professional development along with ongoing sessions with leaders in Māori education such as Angus and Sonja Macfarlane, Richard Manning and Melanie Riwai-Couch, and the appointment of first Māori Advisors and then a kaitautoko has resulted in a dramatic improvement to the bicultural practices in our kindergartens. The following comment from a ERO review in 2015 illustrates this;

The environment is welcoming and supportive of children from different cultural backgrounds. Teachers meaningfully incorporate tikanga Māori in the environment and many aspects of the programme. Te reo Māori is becoming more widely used by teachers in their conversations with children, in children’s assessments and in teachers’ planning.  (ERO, 2015).

When reflecting on the competencies outlined in Tataiako (NZ Teachers Council, 2011) we have further work to do in the area of tangata whenuatanga.  Teachers are beginning to gain greater connections and relationships with local iwi which is essential to better understand plce based knowledge and incorporate this in their teaching.

Cultural identitiy and indigenous knowledge in our organisations vision, mission and core values

This is an area where our organisation has room for further development.  Over the last three years we have incorporated more biculturalism into our values.  At this time the vision and mission of the organisation does not reflect the partnership inherent in the Treaty and we have identified this as an area for improvement.  The appointment of a Māori elder in an education consultant position two years ago has begun to facilitate greater understanding of bicultural practices for the non-educational head office staff and governing board members. This has been further reinforced by the appointment this year of the Kaitautoko.  It will be exciting to see further developments in these areas that will then lead to the work the teachers have been doing in this area reflected across the whole organisation.

References:

Bishop, R, Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T. & Teddy, L. (2009). Te Kotahitanga: Addressing educational disparities facing Māori students in New Zealand. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5)734–742.

ERO (2010)  Success for Māori children in early childhood services.  Education Review Office, Wellington, NZ.

ERO  (2015)  Kidsfirst Kindergartens Wales Street - 31/03/2015 Sourced from: http://www.ero.govt.nz/review-reports/kidsfirst-kindergartens-wales-street-31-03-2015 on 11/06/16

NZ Teachers Council (2011)  Tataiako: Culturally competencies for teachers of Māori learners. Ministry of Education, Wellington, NZ.

Savage,C, Hindleb, R., Meyerc,L., Hyndsa,A., Penetitob, W. & Sleeterd, C.(2011) Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum .Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198

Williams, N. & Broadley, M-E.  (2012)  Resource kit for student teachers, Ako Aotearoa, Wellington, NZ.